A Noted Television Theme

 

Stone is an American police drama that aired on ABC Monday nights for nine episodes in 1980, not including a television pilot movie. The series focused on Det. Sgt. Daniel Stone, a police officer who wrote best-selling novels on police work based on his own experiences. The forgotten series was a Stephen J. Cannell Productions and Gerry Productions, Inc. for Universal Television and was created by Cannell, Richard Levinson and William Link. Mike Post and Pete Carpenter were tabbed for the cool guitar-heavy theme that remains more interesting than the series itself. A hard-hitting theme seemingly over-the-top for Weaver's acting style.

The First of Sixty at Forty-One

 

On this day in 1980, the first McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender made its first flight from Long Beach, California. Based on the DC-10-30CF commercial transport, this aerial tanker can carry 356,000 pounds of fuel. Using a “flying boom” to refuel Air Force aircraft in flight, it also is equipped with a “hose and drogue” system to refuel U.S. Navy and Marine airplanes. Both systems can be used simultaneously. The tanker can also carry cargo pallets or a combination of personnel and cargo. Sixty KC-10s were built for the U.S. Air Force and two similar KDC-10s for the Netherlands. Forty-One years later, that first KC-10A 79-0433, above, is still in service.

The Speed Queen

 

Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran (1906-1980) was an American pilot and business executive. She pioneered women's aviation as one of the most prominent racing pilots of her generation. She set numerous records and was the only woman to compete in the 1937 Bendix air race, working with Amelia Earhart to open the race to women. That year, she also set a new women's world speed record. By the next year, she had won the Bendix championship and set a new transcontinental speed record as well as altitude records. She was the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. Cochran was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) from 1943–44. By 1948, Cochran joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel. Encouraged by lifelong friend, Chuck Yeager, she was the first woman to break the sound barrier in 1953. She was promoted to colonel in 1969 and retired in 1970. Flying jet aircraft, she continued setting numerous records, including becoming the first woman pilot to achieve supersonic speed. Known to many as the "Speed Queen", no other pilot held more speed, distance, or altitude records in aviation history than Cochran. Detailed history at Cochran.